Peter Karmis carried on with his low scoring as he carded a five-under-par 67 to move to 18-under 198 after the third round of the Cape Town Open presented by Sun International at King David Mowbray Golf Club.
He found himself two strokes ahead of Colin Nel and Wales' Rhys Enoch, with veteran former South African Open champion James Kingston, Zimbabwe Open champion JC Ritchie and Merrick Bremner a further shot back on 15-under-par.
“Today, I drove it better than yesterday (Friday),” said Karmis referring to his second-round 68 - just four-under after his opening nine-under. “I only missed one fairway, so I was in play all the time. I putted well again today. I was also patient which was good as being in the lead after two days, there’s a bit more stress and pressure.”
That pressure showed with an early bogey, on the fourth, but he was well aware of what was going on and he dealt well with it. "I wasn’t that upset about it because I had my first half decent bunker shot in ages,” he said.
He also bogeyed the last hole, but his seven birdies served notice to those trying to catch him in today's final round that they'll need to go really low. It was only his fourth bogey of the tournament, which underlines how well he’s played.
And there was plenty of evidence that somebody could go very low: Wallie Coetsee and Rhys West each posted eight-under 64s yesterday to climb up the leaderboard, while Kingston and Nel carded 65 and 66 respectively to stay in touch with the lead heading into the final day.
Karmis was conscious of the fact that those who went out early in the third round had a bit of a scoring edge on him. “It was a different wind than any of the other days,” he said. “And there was no wind for the morning starters. When we started there was quite a bit of wind. The first few holes are right into the wind, and there’s a lot of danger around there. If you make a misjudgement, you can be in some deep trouble.”